


A Language All Their Own

by shadowhostage (thenakednymph)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Language All Their Own, F/M, shadowhostage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-10
Updated: 2012-08-10
Packaged: 2017-11-11 20:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/482488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenakednymph/pseuds/shadowhostage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had a language all his own, if one would only listen. - Rumple's mood scales. Rumbelle</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Language All Their Own

The changes were slight, just a subtle undertone of the scales scattered over his skin. Belle wondered if anyone else had ever noticed and decided that no, no one had; he didn't even seem to be aware of it. It was her own secret and over their months together she'd learned to read them. It had become her own personal brand of magic; her ability to understand this strange man everyone found so frightening.

She liked it best when the scales glittered silver. When they were silver he smiled and teased her and sometimes he even laughed. Not the high mocking laughter she'd heard so often upon her arrival, but a real laugh; like when she'd first started to use magic and a bowl of flour had exploded in her face. He'd laughed the hardest then, his scales flickering in the light from the kitchens hearth. Belle decided she didn't mind making things explode if it made him look like that.

She'd learned that when he was embarrassed his skin flushed gold, but when the scales were gold he was being sneaky. There was a plot in his head, something conniving he had planned and she needed to watch her back. He liked to play tricks on her. She liked the way his eyes glittered with mischief.

When he was angry his scales burned a fiery copper and his skin blazed like flame. Even then he was beautiful. What she didn't like were the days his scales turned green, like verdigris on bronze. On those days he spun in silence, his eyes a lifetime away and a grimace at his mouth. Belle learned to stay close on days like that; when he was thinking of Bae. It seemed to help. He didn't have to ask; his silence was enough. She took to reclining beside him then at the spinning wheel, a book in her hands, her shoulder resting against his knee, an ever present reminder that he was not alone.

Belle had learned to read him as easily as she read one of her books. He had a language all his own if one would only listen.


End file.
